Working with women and showing them what they are capable of in the gym lights me up. Over my last 10 years as a personal trainer who has connected with many women, I have found that most of us ladies grew up keeping our voices as small as possible, as well as our bodies.
Fortunately, times are changing. Women seem to be speaking up for themselves more boldly (unless this is a result of getting older :), and they are learning that putting on muscle (coined “the organ of longevity”) and getting physically stronger can help with metabolism, overall health and quality of life.
It wouldn’t be wrong to say that speaking up for yourself, putting on muscle and gaining physical strength are often times uncomfortable tasks. If you are not familiar with setting boundaries and saying what you really want, then pushing out of your comfort zone to do so will take some mental gymnastics practice and can be physically unsettling. Putting on muscle and getting stronger is somewhat similar – both tasks require pushing yourself out of your physical and mental limits in order to make progress.
So while these tasks can be difficult to take on, they are rewarding to undertake. Whether it’s gaining lean muscle tissue and/or having a stronger body, each are capable of increasing your tolerance to stress. Life never gets easier, but we can get better at dealing with some of it. Emotions and tough times live on a spectrum, and all deserve a place to be acknowledged. Breakups, deaths, losing jobs, you name it…all result in heavy emotions such as grief, anger, sadness and more. And although these emotions are no fun to feel, it is best that they are felt and not ignored.
One huge reason I am so passionate about strength training with women is because of its potential for better stress tolerance. Essentially, that’s what good exercise programming does. A program that follows what fitness professionals refer to as “progressive overload” (the gradual increase of STRESS placed upon the body during physical activity/training) should teach your body to adapt to specific physical effects of stress. As long as other factors in your life are being taken care of (such as sleep, nutrition, lifestyle, psychology and relationships), the tolerance to deal with increased stress should slowly increase.
Stress is experienced by both the mind and the body, so learning to better adapt to the qualities that challenge the body and its physiology in the gym can have influences on how you manage stressors outside the gym. I have found that when you can tolerate stress more mindfully (MINDFULLY is the key) in the gym, you increase your ability to do so outside of the gym. Sitting with our physical discomfort can expand our ability to sit with mental distress.
As Pat Ogden (creator of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy) once said, “In our bodies, in this moment, there live the seed impulses of the change and spiritual growth we seek, and to awaken them we must bring our awareness into the body, into the here and now.”
Strength training is one outlet that can connect you deeper to your body and your mind, allowing you to live a fuller and richer life.
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Katie Mack is a personal trainer out of Treasure Coast, Florida who specializes in strength training and body composition changes for women. She offers remote customized fitness programming and nutrition guidance. Learn more about her at www.katiemackfitness.com and feel free to contact her at [email protected]
